April 02, 2026

App Store: Do Svidanya, VPNs!


App Store: Do Svidanya, VPNs!
Only use by Kremlin permission. The Russian Life files.

On March 28, Apple removed four VPN services from the Russian version of its App Store. Roskomnadzor, the government agency that regulates communications and the internet, pressured the American company to block the apps. 

Since the start of Russia’s War on Ukraine, the Kremlin has heavily surveilled and controlled Russian cyberspace. Virtual Public Networks (VPNs) became a vital tool to access banned content, from apps to websites and podcasts. And while the apps are not explicitly banned in Russia, using them to access "extremist" content can result in fines of R50,000 to R500,000 ($612 to $6,122).

The programs taken down were the VPNs Streisand, V2Box, v2RayTun, and Happ - Proxy Utility. The developers of v2RayTun published a screenshot of the letter from Apple that read, “We are writing to notify you that your application, per the demand of Roskomnadzor, will be removed from the Russia App Store because it includes content that is illegal in Russia, which is not in compliance with App Review Guidelines.”

This is not the first time Apple has complied with Roskomnadzor's orders. In November 2024, Apple blocked access to podcasts from the Russian-language BBC and the independent publications The Insider and Ekho Moskvy. Apple said that it censored the podcasts and apps to continue distributing content in Russia. NGO Reporters without Borders called on the American company to not obey “bodies that do not comply with international standards of freedom protection.”

According to the AppleCensorship project, the American tech firm has blocked 724 apps in the “utilities” category in Russia, including VPNs. 

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